If you’re one of the 7.1 million Californians hitting the highway this holiday season, you may get a nice surprise: Cleaner, brighter and more accessible rest stops.

At a cost of $13 million a year, nearly half of the state’s 87 rest stops have gotten makeovers since 2000 and all are supposed to be up to federal American’s with Disabilities Act standards by 2009.

“You need to have good rest stops on the road. They are valuable,” said Marie Montgomery, Automobile Club of Southern California spokeswoman. “If people have this idea that they will be grungy, then there’s a reluctance to stop.”

Visited by more than 100 million each year, the state’s rest areas were largely built during the 1960s and 1970s during the heyday of new freeway construction. In fact, the last rest stop to be built in California was back in 1984, said Caltrans spokeswoman Cassandra Hockenson.

Rest stops have a history in California nearly as old as the state. The state’s earliest rest areas began popping up along highways in 1868 as wayside stations to provide water and shade to travelers and livestock.

Although times have changed, the need for rest stops has not. Feeling drowsy while on the road remains a top reason to pull over and take a break, Montgomery said.

In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2002 estimated that 100,000 police-reported crashes annually are the direct result of driver fatigue. These crashes cause more than 1,550 deaths and 71,000 injuries.

“The big thing is making sure there’s a parking area where people can feel safe taking naps,” Montgomery said. “You find that restaurants don’t like you doing that, so it’s good to have public parking space where you can sleep.”

Eighty more rest stops are needed in California, according to a plan developed in 2000 by the Office of State Landscape Architecture. The proposal does not include a financial plan or time frame to construct them.

Caltrans is first looking to build three new rest areas on the Golden State (5) Freeway between Kern and San Joaquin counties. Another four are under consideration for Southern California deserts.

David Rizzo, a Fullerton transportation expert, argues that the state does not need additional rest stops because today’s highways are no longer isolated from cities and people, like they were during the 1960s and 1970s.

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